These are just some of the terms that define some, but not all, of more than 3,300 vacant properties in the city of Trenton. In an effort to help reduce blight, The Trenton Neighborhood Restoration Campaign (TNRC) seeks to identify all of them and create a map which will eventually turned over to the city. In addition the TNRC is working with city staff to create better system where the data is able to be shared among different departments — the example given was if inspections finds something wrong, the planning department people would also know about it.

On Saturday, the TNRC will conduct a training session at 5 North Broad Street — the corner of State and Broad street above the Dunkin Donuts — at the TCNJ satellite office from 2 to 4 p.m.

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According to TNRC Project Manager Iana Dikidjieva, of Isles Incorporated, the TNRC is working with a team of interns from Rutgers working throughout the summer to conduct the survey. Additionally, Dikidjieva said that they’re working to reach out to community groups, civic associations, churches and residents to make the survey as successful as possible. Though Dikidjieva said she’d like to have everyone in Trenton engaged in the process. Accordingly, she said that there are teams of people mobilizing volunteers for the days that the TNRC would be in the area. The plan has the city gridded out in weeks where they TNRC hopes to survey 1,000 tax map parcels a day. To put that in perspective, there are around 32,000 parcels in the city, a monumental task by any definition.

Dikidjieva said the aim is to have the field portion of the project completed by the third week of August. The first phase map is posted online and shows what the TNRC plans accomplish by July 3.

“We’re heading west to the Park in the first two weeks, then doing East Trenton, then downtown and Mill Hill in that odd fourth week before the Fourth of July holiday,” Dikidjieva said.

On Monday, June 9 — the official start of the survey — the plan is to head down Spring Street and Bellevue Avenue and potentially on State Street. Dikidjieva pointed out the irony that within mere blocks of the Statehouse that there were houses falling down. The blight stands in stark contrast to the gold-leaf clad dome and brick and marble facade of the capitol building. And on the TNRC’s website, another valid claim is raised, “the next mayor will take office across from boarded-up windows.”

It seems that it doesn’t take much to grasp the vastness of the empty boarded up structures in the city.

“I also wanted to knock out a few of the neighborhoods with a lot of vacants early on,” Dikidjieva said. She pointed out that would likely be a time when there were more volunteers committed to the project.

The goal of the project, according to Dikidjieva, is to publish the data on an interactive map and turn it over to the city.

While the project lacks an additional pot of money to help demolish or rehabilitate properties, the hope is that having the data available will lead to as, Dikidjieva puts it, “saner, proactive decisions about what to do with any money that does become available.”

On Saturday, as part of the kickoff and training, volunteers who get to the city early should stop by the Gandhi Garden where they will be making pizza from noon to 2 p.m.

The actual survey begins on Monday June 9. Volunteers wanting participate should meet at the Carver Center at 40 Fowler Street by 9 a.m.

To find out more about The Trenton Neighborhood Restoration Campaign, you can go to their website or check them out on Facebook.

About the Author

Scott is a reporter/photographer at the Trentonian covering general assignment work in the Greater Trenton Area. Reach the author at sketterer@trentonian.com
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